...And Justice For All: Special Edition

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All Rise...

Judge Clark Douglas is reviewing a legal drama for a review website with a legal theme. What a great time for priceless one-liner, right? Oh well, out of space.

The Charge

Sometimes right things go terribly wrong.

Opening Statement

"I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to
the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all."

As you might have guessed from this film's title, …And Justice for
All is an in-depth examination of what the final four words of the pledge of
allegiance really mean.

Facts of the Case

Arthur (Al Pacino, The Godfather)
is the kind of lawyer you would want to represent you. He is a good man, he is
honest, he is intelligent, and he knows how to win. He cares about all of his
clients, from the rich businessmen to the homeless guys nobody seems to know.
Arthur has been a lawyer for 12 years, and he's starting to get really skeptical
about the system. Defending his clients is becoming an increasingly frustrating
business. The guilty ones always seem to have strong cases in their defense, and
the innocent ones become the toughest to defend. It doesn't help that a local
judge (John Forsythe, Topaz) has a particular
dislike for Arthur and doesn't offer him any breathing room whatsoever when it
comes to the legal technicalities of a court case.

You can imagine Arthur's surprise when that very same judge is arrested on
charges of rape and assault. Arthur is surprised even further when the judge
asks Arthur to serve as his lawyer. Initially, Arthur refuses to take on the
case out of sheer spite, not wanting to aid the man who has plagued him so
frequently. However, when another judge (Jack Warden, The Verdict) steps in and informs Arthur
that he could be disbarred if he doesn't accept the case, Arthur quickly changes
his mind. He begins to prepare a case, and then comes across a troubling
question: if his client is guilty, what is he going to do?

The Evidence

When …And Justice for All was released in 1979, the reviews were
generally positive but contained a lot of decidedly mixed feelings about certain
elements in the film. The movie has a very strange tone. In fact, it has several
strange tones. There are elements of serious drama, subtle tension, broad
comedy, and everything in-between. Each plotline (and there are many) generates
a unique set of feelings, and one can certainly understand why some might feel a
little put-off by this. In fact, the film was co-written by Barry Levinson, who
has made some similarly disjointed films that just didn't work at all (see Man of the Year for a recent example). Somehow,
under the direction of Norman Jewison (The Thomas Crown Affair) and with the
aid of Pacino's acting, the film holds up as a very strong condemnation of the
legal system.

Though Dave Grusin's enjoyably cheesy funk/disco score and a few of the bad
hairdos date the film somewhat, …And Justice for All is a film that
still seems relevant and timely today. I imagine that ever since the idea of a
legal system was conceived, it has been full of significant flaws and a great
deal of injustice. The legal problems of 1979 are very similar to the legal
problems of 2008, and I imagine that they will be very similar to the legal
problems of 2050. This is an angry film that frequently laughs to keep from
exploding into a violent rage (which it also does from time to time). How can
any good person working in the legal system face these problems and not feel a
little bit hopeless at times?

Arthur has one client who was stopped one night because he had a broken tail
light. A small misunderstanding led to an arrest, a mistake led to jail time,
and now an innocent man has spent two years in prison and is still waiting to
get out. All of this because of a broken tail light. On the other hand, one of
Arthur's partners (Jeffrey Tambor, Slipstream) defended a murderer and got him
off the hook. Now the murderer has killed two children, and the knowledge of
this drives Tambor's character into insanity. We're bewildered at these and
other situations, and so is this film.

The film covers a whole lot of territory over the course of two hours. We
dig into the plot lines I've just mentioned at some considerable depth and
others as well. There's Arthur's romantic relationship with a woman (Christine
Lahti, The Doctor) who works on a legal ethics committee, Arthur's
relationship with his increasingly senile grandfather (Pacino's legendary acting
coach, Lee Strasberg), the troubles of a transvestite (Robert Christian) who has
been arrested on robbery charges, and the bizarre penchant for extreme danger
exhibited by the judge played by Jack Warden. All of these stories are
significant; they all play a part in either furthering the themes of the film,
or telling us more about the characters.

The supporting cast in this movie is excellent all the way across the board.
John Forsythe gives a truly icy, intimidating performance in his role. He's the
consummate cold-hearted professional (criminal?). Jack Warden is immensely
compelling in a strange part, bringing a dose of loopy unpredictability and
humor to the proceedings. Jeffrey Tambor, always good, turns in an off-kilter
and sympathetic offering as Pacino's mentally troubled partner, and Craig T.
Nelson is quite solid in a small early role as an attorney. It's certainly great
to see Lee Strasberg on the screen; he shares some very touching and tender
scenes with Pacino.

Despite the fact that the strong supporting cast features interesting,
three-dimensional characters, …And Justice for All is still very
much a star vehicle for Al Pacino. The film was released during what could be
considered the weakest period of Pacino's career (the late 1970s and
early-to-mid-1980s). This film and Scarface are both significant
accomplishments of that period, but that was also the time that Pacino made Bobby Deerfield, Cruising, Author! Author! and Revolution. Pacino's performance is this
film is a commanding, sure-footed piece of high-voltage scene-chewing and has
more in common with the entertaining Pacino roles of the 1990s than with the
subtler acting turns of the 1970s. Some find the actor to be too noisy and
blustery in parts like this, but I have to disagree. Pacino almost always finds
such solid ground to root his characters in, and he always seems to bring
something interesting and thoughtful to the table. Here, his performance leads
up to one of the most iconic scenes of the career. You may very well know it:
"You're out of order! You're out of order! This whole trial is out of
order!" The emotional build-up to that moment is handled very effectively
by Pacino, and when his tour-de-force arrives, he delivers with a righteous fury
that few actors could match.

The film looks considerably better than a lot of films released around the
late 1970s, and receives a strong DVD transfer that has a very minimal amount of
scratches. Picture is just a little on the flat side at times, but nothing to
complain about much. Audio is generally pretty good, though at times you may be
compelled to use the volume control on your remote. An intimate dialogue scene
will sometimes be followed by a very noisy shouting scene, and it's hard to find
a volume level that will suit both satisfactorily.

This special edition DVD includes a generous batch of bonus features, some
of which are quite peculiar. Norman Jewison offers up both a full-length audio
commentary and a 12-minute video interview. These cover some similar territory,
and those who only want to hear the meat and potatoes of Jewison's thoughts on
the film can just watch the interview. However, the commentary does go into a
lot of stuff at significantly greater detail, which is generally what I prefer.
There's also a seven-minute interview with writer Barry Levinson, who talks
about trying to balance the comedy and drama in the film. Ten minutes of deleted
scenes offer some good moments that essentially cover material the film had all
ready covered adequately elsewhere. Pacino doesn't show up on anything related
to …And Justice for All, but he does turn up during a 10-minute
sneak preview of his next movie, 88
Minutes. Personally, I don't care much for this sort of feature; it's of no
use once the actual movie has been released. Still, considering that the DVD
also generously supplies a free pass to go see 88 Minutes, all is
forgiven. See you again in April, Mr. Pacino!

Finally, and most oddly of all, we get the complete pilot episode of the
television series Damages, which
stars Glenn Close and Ted Danson. This is a very interesting marketing
technique, trying to convince viewers who like this film to check out a TV show
with similar themes. Personally, I would have preferred for this space to be
used for an hour-long documentary on this film, but hey, that's just me. For
what it's worth, the pilot episode of the show is pretty decent, though I didn't
think that Damages started to get really interesting until mid-season.
Also a bit of interesting trivia: …And Justice for All was
conceived as a television show, but at the time, TV executives told Levinson
that "nobody would want to watch a show about lawyers." Oh, how little
they knew…

The Rebuttal Witnesses

It could be argued that …And Justice for All pushes too hard,
that it verges on the edge of melodrama at times. You'd have a valid case in
saying that, and if the movie doesn't work for you because of that, I
understand. For me, considering the injustices being dealt with here, I think it
would be awfully hard to successfully address them in a low-key way. After all,
that's precisely what Arthur tries to do the entire movie, and look what sort of
fireworks he is driven to by the end.

Closing Statement

Norman Jewison has made a sizable chunk of pretty darn good films in his
time, and this is one of his best. It's an engaging and vibrant film that deals
with some important subjects. It is never pretentious or self-important; the
film is raw, sincere, and unafraid of being laugh-out-loud funny in the midst of
tragedy. The ingredients presented here can sometimes make for a messy dish, but
it all works in …And Justice for All. This is an excellent film
with excellent performances that I can recommend without hesitation.

The Verdict

This trial and this court may be out of order, but that's not going to stop
me from issuing a just verdict: Not Guilty.